NASA-UAP-D001, Apollo 12 Technical Air-to-Ground Voice Transcription (1969)
This four-page document is an official NASA transcript excerpt of air-to-ground voice communications from Apollo 12, the fourth crewed U.S. Moon mission and second lunar landing (November 1969). The transcript captures contemporaneous crew observations of unidentified phenomena. On Day 05 (05:19:27:25), Lunar Module Pilot Alan L. Bean described seeing particles and flashes of light through the onboard Alignment Optical Telescope (AOT), noting they were 'just sailing off in space' and appeared to be 'escaping the Moon.' He speculated they might be dropping from his water boiler. A separate exchange discusses an all-8s pulsing display on the AGS/DEDA, which mission control (with 'Fredo' and reference to TRW) attributed to probable electromagnetic interference (EMI) seen during spacecraft testing at Bethpage. On Day 06 (06:00:21:51), Commander Charles 'Pete' Conrad reported 'little bits and pieces floating along' outside the LM illuminated by the tracking light, and assessed the tracking light had burned out because he could no longer see the debris. The document is presented as a record of crew reactions to unidentified visual phenomena, not as evidence of extraterrestrial activity; the crew and ground offer mundane candidate explanations (water boiler particles, EMI, tracking-light illumination).
Description
An excerpt from the Apollo 12 Technical Air-to-Ground Voice Transcription (November 1969), released by the U.S. Department of War as part of a UAP records release. The excerpt highlights two periods in which the flight crew reported observing unidentified phenomena: a roughly one-hour period on mission Day 05 and a two-minute period on Day 06.
Claims
LMP Alan Bean observed particles and flashes of light through the AOT that appeared to be 'escaping the Moon,' possibly from his water boiler.
95%The transcript documents contemporaneous crew reactions to unidentified phenomena during the Apollo 12 mission in November 1969.
90%Commander Conrad observed floating debris outside the LM illuminated by the tracking light and concluded the light had burned out.
85%Commander Pete Conrad observed floating debris ('little bits and pieces') accompanying the Lunar Module, illuminated by the onboard tracking light.
85%Mission control attributed an all-8s pulsing DEDA display to probable electromagnetic interference (EMI) previously seen during spacecraft testing at Bethpage.
80%The pulsing all-8s flash on the AGS DEDA display was attributed by ground control to electromagnetic interference (EMI) seen during prior spacecraft testing at Bethpage.
75%Bean speculated the particles could be dropping from his water boiler rather than being external objects.
70%
Events
Oct 31, 1969
Bean observes light particles via AOT
At 05:19:27:25, LMP Alan Bean reported particles and flashes of light 'sailing off in space,' appearing to be 'escaping the Moon.'
Oct 31, 1969
AGS/DEDA all-8s pulsing display
At 05:20:09:34, Bean reported an all-8s pulsing flash on the AGS registers; ground attributed it to probable EMI seen in testing at Bethpage.
Oct 31, 1969
Conrad observes floating debris / tracking light burnout
At 06:00:21:51, Commander Conrad reported bits and pieces floating alongside the LM and assessed the tracking light had burned out.
May 7, 2026
Public release of transcript
Document released by the U.S. Department of War as part of UAP records release 3.
Oct 31, 1969
Bean reports particles/flashes of light 'escaping the Moon'
At mission elapsed time 05:19:27:25, LMP Alan Bean describes flashes of light sailing off into space seen through the AOT dark quadrant.
Oct 31, 1969
Conrad reports floating debris near Lunar Module
Around mission elapsed time 06:00:21, Commander Conrad reports bits and pieces floating along with the LM illuminated by the tracking light, later concluding the light burned out.
Dates mentioned
Keywords
Entities
Events
People
Craft
Places
Extracted text (OCR)
Tape 90/3 Page 742 05 19 14 58 cc That's affirmntive . 05 19 16 31 cc Intrepid, Houston. 05 19 16 35 CDR-I.M Go. 05 19 16 37 cc If you will give us P0O and ACCEFT, we'll give you a CSM state vector and RLS update. 05 19 16 45 CDR-l.M You have POD and ACCEPT. 05 19 20 05 CMP Hello, Houston; Yankee Clipper. 05 19 20 09 cc Yankee Clipper, Houston. 05 19 20 14 CMP Well, hello there, stranger. How are you? 05 19 20 22 cc Morning, Dick. How are you? 05 19 20 27 CMP Well, pretty good. I hope you would like to have some company for a change. 05 19 20 31 cc Roger. 05 19 20 36 CMP As a matter of fact, I just finished that. I sure do; got everything in order; ready to go towards the LM and bring back . . . That's quite a chore; keeping this thing clean. 05 19 20 53 cc Roger. You got a couple of coal miners coming up to see you. 05 19 20 59 CMP That's oka,y. 05 19 21 10 cc We're ready for the E-M0D. Loud and clear. We are fine. Got the house clean? I'll be glad to see them. Intrepid, Houston. The computer is yours. Yankee Clipper, if you will go POO and ACCEPT, we have an uplink. Break. 05 19 21 20 CMP All yours. 05 19 23 14 CDR-IM Houston, you got the lift-off time for me? 05 19 23 20 cc Stand by. 05 19 23 39 cc Intrepid, Houston. 142:03:47. 05 19 23 52 CDR-LM I copy 142:03:47.00, 05 19 23 57 c~ cc Affirma.ti ve. 05 19 24 05 ) Clipper, Houston. Your lift-off time is Computer's yours. Tape 90/4 Page 743 05 19 24 11 CMP Okay. And Jerry, will you find out what they want to do about this battery charge, be~~use . I'm using the bus tics during the rendezvous? 05 19 24 23 cc Roger. 05 19 24 43 cc Yankee Clipper, Houston. Why don't you figure on terminating the battery charge at LOS? 05 19 24 52 CMP All right; I could let it go until I just before lift-off. That way it might take it all the way up. 05 19 25 33 cc Clipper, Houston. We prefer that you terminate at LOS on this pass. 05 19 25 40 CMP Roger. 05 19 25 41 cc Roger. That would be one less thing for us to keep track of prior to lift-off. 05 19 25 48 CMP Okey. 05 19 27 17 CDR-IM Say, Houston, Intrepid. 05 19 27 20 cc Intrepid, Houston. 05 19 27 25 IMP-LM Roger. When you look out the AOT in the dark quadrant? You can see these lights - particles of light. flash~s of light just seem to come from - in this case, I'm looking in quadrant 1 which is the left one. It's coming :from behind me, the left, and they're just sailing off in space. I was thinking they're dropping from my water boiler. but it looks like some of those things are escaping the Moon. They really haul out of here and just press off at the stars. 05 19 27 56 Roger. 05 19 28 25 cc cc 05 19 28 42 CMP Go ahead. 05 19 28 44 cc Roger. Go. Yankee Clipper~ Houston with a P22 tracking PAD. Your target is LM; T1 is 139: 57:39; T is 140:02:38; ~outh 05; latitude is 2 minus 3 05 19 29 10 CMP Hoger. T 112 - Tape 90/9 Page 748 ) 05 20 08 23 cc Clipper, Houston. We'll give that data a good evaluation before we do anything with it. 05 20 09 25 LMP-IM Houston, Intrepid. 05 20 09 30 cc Intrepid, Houston. 05 20 09 34 IMP-1..M Got sort of an interesting thing going on AGS right now. I didn't notice earlier, but it may just be because the lights i:,.re brighter now. I'm getting an all 8 1 s flash on both the address and the information registers at about onefifth the brilliance of the normal numbers. And a - It's pulsing every second. 05 20 10 00 CC Roger, Al. 05 20 10 06 LMP-IM If I turn dmm the illumination level just a little bit, it's not noticeable. 05 20 10 52 LMP-LM Hello, Houston ; Intrepid. hot fire? You ready for my RCS 05 20 10 59 CC Intrepid, Houston. Fire aw~. 05 20 11 03 CDR-LM Okay. 05 20 11 32 CC Intrepid, Houston. 05 20 11 37 LMP-LM Go. 05 20 11 39 cc Roger, Al. Fredo is here. He and I have both seen that phenomena on your DEDA during t estin :', of most a.11 the spacecrafts up at Bethpage, and it's probably an EMI. 05 20 11 56 CDR-LM That's what ve' ve been talking about, but we thought we'd just tcucb in on it. 05 20 11 59 IMP-IM When you go to your roll rate, roll lef't, pitch up - - 05 20 12 01 cc Roger. I think TRW's got a v0rkup on this problem. 05 20 12 08 CDR-IM Okay? 05 20 12 11 CDR-IM _) GO. Roger. Here yo~ go, Houston, with roll, pit ch, and yav. 05 20 12 14 cc Roger, Pete. ) -~---·- ··•···•- · -------- ---- ---.--·- -- --···----- -·- -··---·- Tape 93/8 Page 778 . 06 00 21 42 CMP But I don't have you in the sextant, That's okay. Your blinking light's Just not blinking, that's all. 06 co 21 51 CDR-IM Hey, Houston. It looks like our tracking llght's burned out. Dick hasn't been able to find us in this sextant. And on the first nightside pass we had little bits and pieces floating along vith us and we could tell that the tracking light va.; flashing on them. And we still have, I've presumed to think, bits and pieces floating along and nothing' s flashing on them, so I'm pretty sure it burned out. 06 00 22 11 CC Roger, Pete. 06 00 22 22 LMP-LM Yes, sir. 06 00 22 26 CC Hi, Intrepid. 06 00 22 27 LMP-LM Okay. 06 00 22 28 cc This is Houston. and aft go? 06 00 22 33 CDR-LM It's getting much cleaner in here running this way; and, also, Yankee Clipper informs me he bas the television all set up. When we come around the hor~1, ·we' 11 come around with the television on in VOX. 06 00 22 47 CC Roger . .06 00 22 53 CDR-IM Who knows, you may get to see the first wbiffer<l.ill. 06 00 22 59 CC Roger, Pete. Our electrical watchers say that the current indicates that your tracking light is on. 06 00 23 11 CDR-IM Okay. Now ve just turned it off. current show that? 06 00 23 19 cc It - It sure does, Pete. 06 00 23 26 CMP You're - they're - You're flying thr0ugh the air b~ckward3, then, Pete, because I don't see it. 06 00 23 33 CDR-LM ( ) Okay. How'd your sweepdown fore How does the Well, my ball tells me I'm pointed at you, Dick, • and so does my radar.
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